Copyright 2000 Plain Dealer Publishing Co.
The
Plain Dealer
April 6, 2000 Thursday, FINAL / ALL
SECTION: NATIONAL; Pg. 16A
LENGTH: 669 words
HEADLINE:
NATION
BODY:
RALEIGH, N.C.
Legislature shields cigarette makers
North Carolina, the nation's No. 1 tobacco
producer, swiftly passed a law
yesterday to shield the state's cigarette
makers from what could be a
crippling verdict in a smoking case under way in
Florida. Less than an hour
later, Gov. Jim Hunt signed it into law. The law
sets a cap of $25 million on
the amount a company has to post as bond while
appealing a punitive-damage
verdict. A jury in Miami is considering damages
in a class-action case
involving 500,000 sick Florida smokers. The industry
has said it fears a
punitive-damage verdict of $300 billion that could wreck
the tobacco
companies. Under Florida law, a defendant must post a bond equal
to the
damages levied while appealing a case.
WASHINGTON
Hearing tests urged for
newborns
Newborns should receive mandatory hearing tests
from hospitals before they
are taken home, a national group said yesterday.
More than 12,000 babies are
born deaf or with serious hearing loss annually,
and it sometimes takes
parents up to two years to find out, according to
Hear Us: the National
Campaign for Hearing Health (NCHH). Universal
Newborn Hearing Screenings, a
system that tests hearing
abilities shortly after birth, costs as little as
$20. But less than 35
percent of all newborns in the United States are tested
for hearing because
hospitals are not required to administer the test, and
parents don't know
that they should get their children tested at birth, the
group said. Only 24
states have adopted policies or mandates supporting UNHS,
according to the
NCHH report card. Ohio, which screens 17.3 percent of its
newborns, was
given a "fair" grade.
SAN DIEGO
Retired Army major charged in porn case
A retired Army major who oversaw the White House's
emergency communications
has been charged with sending pornographic material
to children over the
Internet and attempting to have sex with two girls.
Authorities said John W.
Davis, 44, of Sandpoint, Idaho, was caught in an
online sting when an
undercover police officer posed as a mother who told
Davis he could have sex
with her 12- and 14-year-old daughters. Davis was
arrested March 23 in San
Diego, where he allegedly went to meet the mother.
WASHINGTON
Two Buddhist
nuns charged with contempt
Two Buddhist nuns from Southern
California who ignored subpoenas from
federal prosecutors in connection with
Democratic fund-raising abuses were
indicted yesterday on charges of
criminal contempt. Yi Chu and Man Ho were
charged with flouting subpoenas
and a federal judge's order by traveling to
Taiwan to avoid testifying at
the trial of Los Angeles immigration consultant
Maria Hsia. Although the
nuns were considered key witnesses for the
prosecution, Justice Department
lawyers used 27 other witnesses to obtain
Hsia's conviction last month on
five felony counts stemming from her role in a
Buddhist temple fund-raising
event attended by Vice President Al Gore four
years ago.
Holocaust panel posts list on Internet
The international commission investigating whether
European insurers
cheated Holocaust survivors yesterday published on the
Internet the names of
thousands of World War II-era insurance policyholders
who are owed money. The
names were posted in more than a dozen languages on
the Web site of the
International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance
Claims. The address is:
http://www.icheic.org
The commission Web site includes information about how the
lists were
gathered and how to search for names. The Web site cautions that
"these lists
many not include all potential claims, and people should not be
discouraged
from filing claims simply because their names or the names of
family members
do not appear on any published lists. Anyone who believes he
or she has a
valid life, education, or dowry policy is encouraged to present
the claim to
ICHEIC."
COLUMN: NATION
LOAD-DATE: April 7, 2000 
